The Waters of Strife – the Devastation of Religious Coercion

Parshat Chukat

For centuries, commentators have struggled with and argued about the incident of the Mei Meriva (the waters of strife). After the Children of Israel complained about the lack of water in the desert, God ordered Moshe to speak to a rock and draw forth water, but, as is well known, he hit the rock instead (Bamidbar 20:1-11).

Moshe was punished harshly for his failure to adhere strictly to the details of this command. Indeed, his ultimate dream to enter and live in the Land of Israel was shattered because of this one seemingly small mistake, and in spite of all his pleas for forgiveness, God did not allow him to lead the Israelites across the Jordan.

God’s severity in this narrative is unprecedented. Four times the Torah refers to this divine expression of “anger,” and five times God condemns Moshe for this sin: 1) “Because you did not have faith in Me” (Bamidbar 20:12); 2) “You defied My word” (Ibid. 20:24); 3) “You disobeyed My command” (Ibid. 27:14); 4) “You betrayed Me” (Devarim 32: 51); 5) “You did not sanctify Me in the midst of the Children of Israel” (Ibid.).

The sin is even more perplexing when one considers that causing water to gush forth from a rock by hitting it is no less miraculous than producing the same effect via speech. Only one slight blow produced enough water to quench the thirst of millions of people. No scientific explanation could ever account for this! What was it in Moshe’s actions that reflected such flagrant disbelief and rebellion as to warrant that harsh response? What changed as a result of Moshe’s decision to hit the rock rather than speak to it? And why did God insist that water be produced miraculously by speech and nothing else? Why not leave this seemingly small decision in Moshe’s hands? After all, Torah “lo bashamayim he” (Devarim 30:12). The Torah is no longer in Heaven, and its rulings are up to humans to decide.

To Paraphrase Sophocles in his Philoctetes: I see that everywhere among the race of men, it is the tongue that wins and not the coercive act. Hitting implies coercion—a brute force that leaves the other no option but to follow the orders of the attacker. Obedience, therefore, does not demonstrate any real willingness, or agreement with the resulting action. Even the threat of physical coercion casts suspicion on one’s deeds, and usually implies a complete lack of authenticity.

Speech, on the other hand, is a means of persuasion that does not bypass or disable the listener’s decision-making process. Any response to speech will therefore be genuine. This is actually alluded to in Meshech Chochma (ad loc. See also Maharal).

In many ways, the revelation at Sinai was an intensely coercive event. This position is borne out by the Talmud’s famous remark that God threatened to drop the mountain on the Israelites if they chose not to accept the Torah (Shabbat 88a). Rabbi Acha ben Yaakov protests this divine intimidation, saying that God indeed threatened to kill the Jews if they refused to be party to the covenant, and therefore the legality of the agreement, which was reached under coercion, is called into question. This implies that perhaps the Jewish people are not really obligated to keep the commandments in the Torah! Some Chassidic masters even suggest that it was this threat and this feeling of having been forced that led to the sin of the golden calf. (See, for example, ChiddusheiHaRim on ParshatYitro.) If so, it would seem that the harsh coercion was too much for the Israelites to bear and at a certain level became counterproductive.

That said, it was of utmost importance that the Jewish people accept the Torah. Sometimes coercion can be beneficial to people, serving as an essential ingredient for their education. Homines enim civiles non nascuntur, sed fiunt (Civil men are not born, but made), said Spinoza[1], reflecting an old Jewish truth. But Law must ultimately lead to moral freedom. This means that liberty is primarily an issue of education. To be an agent of freedom, and not constraint, lawful coercion must lead to awareness in people that had they understood the values inherent in the laws, they would have accepted them with even the gentlest forms of persuasion.

King David expressed this concept when he said: “I will walk in freedom, for I have sought out Your laws” (Tehillim 119:45). Using a beautiful exegetical wordplay, the Sages read the description of the tablets, on which God wrote the Ten Commandments, not as “the writing of God engraved (charut) on the tablets,” but as “freedom(cheirut) on the tablets” (PirkeiAvot 6:2). Only when we engrave the laws into our hearts do we experience absolute freedom—self-expression in the deepest and truest sense.[2]

When standing at the border of the Land of Israel, the Jewish people underwent a radical change of “weltanschauung.” At Sinai, and during their years of wandering in the desert, God used coercion as a necessary device to prepare them for lives as Jews. Suddenly, as they entered the land and became more spiritually independent, they began to understand that the survival of Judaism would depend upon the effectiveness of gentle persuasion. While bound by the Law, they realized that to build a deeply religious society, Jewish educators would need to use the power of the word—gentle and inspiring—and not the rod, if they hoped to foster conditions in which Jews would be willing and feel privileged to live their lives according to the Torah’s mandate.

Had this not become clear at the inception of the first Jewish Commonwealth, the nation’s government could have become a tyrannical and fundamentalist dictatorship. This mode of leadership would have been a sign of weakness: Do the Jews have to be beaten into observing God’s law? It would have called into question the inherent truth and persuasive powers of the Torah, thereby profaning God’s name.

This, then, was at the core of Moshe’s sin. For the sake of later generations—who would need to know that the ways of the Torah are ways of pleasantness, of the gentle word and not the hard strike—God denied Moshe the merit of living in the land. In this way, He made it clear to all that leaders who seek to turn Israel into a holy nation by way of threat or by force may very well bring disaster to themselves and their people.

Notes:

[2] This is not what the British philosopher Isaiah Berlin calls “negative liberty” (i.e., freedom from…), but rather a constitutional freedom in which one’s own freedom automatically respects that of the other, and for which one is prepared to make sacrifices. Otherwise, “Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow.” Berlin explains this at great length in “Two Concepts of Liberty,” Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford University Press, 1969) pp. 118–173.

Questions by the Think Tank of the David Cardozo Academy.

Rabbi Cardozo presents the issue of Moshe hitting the rock as a struggle between coercion and speech. In explaining both sides of the issue, he states: “Sometimes coercion can be for a person’s benefit and often serves as an essential ingredient of his education.”

– The possibility for coercion is halachically built into the powers wielded by the beit din. If a man refuses to give his wife a get, the law is kofin oto ad she’omer rotzeh ani – we coerce him until he says “I want to.” How do you feel about this paradoxical statement, and about the beit din’s right to coerce?

– Can you define when coercion is for a person’s benefit? When is it essential for his/her education? How do we know when the line has been crossed and coercion starts obscuring a person’s authenticity and encroaching on the right to free choice?

– What role should coercion play in Jewish and/or Israeli society – is some amount of coercion essential or even ideal for the functioning of society? Or do you believe that the ideal rests in gentle persuasion, with the hope that mankind will rise above the need for any kind of coercion whatsoever? Why?

The tension between freedom and law is known, with more liberal-minded thinkers arguing that the law constrains freedom as compared to more conservative-minded thinkers arguing that the law is required to gain true freedom. This tension can also be phrased as a dichotomy between science and art. The rigors of scientific research enable an expansion of our knowledge of the universe, and our enhanced understandings of the laws of nature lead to more freedom; while the rigors of artistic expression, which also expand our knowledge of the universe, usually involve a well-intentioned breaking of, and breaking free from, the rules.

– In what ways does this tension manifest in your world, and how do you resolve it, if at all?

– Is this the same question as “How do you navigate halacha when it comes into conflict with your own authenticity”? Or not?

– Can you think of examples of how playing by the rules or being within the law actually enhances a person’s authenticity and freedom?

Rabbi Cardozo argues that the Jewish people needed a different model of leadership as they approached entry into the land of Israel and that Moshe’s act of hitting the rock, instead of speaking to it, betrayed his inability to engage in such leadership. Do you agree with this interpretation? How else would you explain the harsh consequence of Moshe’s action?

According to Rabbi Cardozo’s theory about Moshe, the books of Joshua, Prophets and Kings should exhibit at least the beginnings of a mode of Divine education through gentle speech, not coercion. Is this the case? If not, how might Rabbi Cardozo explain this?

Do you find yourself sometimes trying to control people through anger, authoritarianism, manipulation, or physical force? Are these methods effective, and what are your thoughts on your use of them? Would you want to make other choices, and if so what would help you to do so?

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About Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo is the Founder and Dean of the David Cardozo Academy and the Bet Midrash of Avraham Avinu in Jerusalem. A sought-after lecturer on the international stage for both Jewish and non-Jewish audiences, Rabbi Cardozo is the author of 13 books and numerous articles in both English and Hebrew. He heads a Think Tank focused on finding new Halachic and philosophical approaches to dealing with the crisis of religion and identity amongst Jews and the Jewish State of Israel. Hailing from the Netherlands, Rabbi Cardozo is known for his original and often fearlessly controversial insights into Judaism. His ideas are widely debated on an international level on social media, blogs, books and other forums.

Every week I receive hundreds of emails, as well as a host of important observations on my essays, via our website, Facebook, newspaper blogs, and other media outlets. It is therefore completely impossible for me to respond – for which I apologize – but please be assured that I read every comment, which I deeply appreciate and from which I learn so much. Only in exceptional cases will I respond in a subsequent essay. My office staff will try to be more prompt in posting these remarks on our website.

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your comments with me, as well as with your fellow readers. I hope you will continue to do so.

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